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Description:
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An image of a man of African appearance to show the operation of trepanning (now called trephining). The operation was used to remove parts of the skull if it was fractured. If parts of the skull were thought to be a danger to the patient (for example by putting pressure on the brain), a circular piece was cut out with a saw, and then any part of the skull that needed to be taken away could be very carefully levered up and removed. The image here shows the patient with his head lay on a pillow and a blanket pulled up to his chin. His head is laid to the left, to show the right side of the skull after the operation. This shows the scalp pulled back (partly from the injury and partly by the surgeon), the cranium (skull), and the dura mater (the outermost covering of the brain) where parts of the skull have been removed. Also shown in the image is a scroll with an illustration of the damage to the skull before the operation and the position of the circular part removed. At the bottom are examples of bone removed by trephining. The text gives detailed instruction on how to carry out the operation, and also on how to prepare the patient, the place of the operation, and equipment, and how to dress the wound afterwards. The rest of the volume contains instruction and images for operations on hernia, amputation, aneurism (or aneurysm) and lithotomy.
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